Whew—you made it through all the sorting, shredding, throwing out, and finally just shoving all those last few things into a box! Your computer is up and running and you have a mountain of boxes begging for your attention, but really, what you want is a cup of coffee and to find out why your tack board looks like some sort of odd modern art! Welcome to "Common Issues," where we can answer some of the questions about South Hall and the move to help you make sense of this new environment. Send us your questions and we'll post answers to those that will be helpful to everyone.

I heard that the card reader isn't a "swipe," but I waved my key card in front of the card reader and nothing happened.The new Mcard (look for the skeleton key on the front—that's how you can tell you have the right one) is a "smart" card, which means it has a chip inside that is read by the card reader. To get in, you hold your card close to the reader, picture facing out, no waving it around, and in a few seconds you should hear the click of the door lock opening. If it doesn't work after you've tried a couple of times, submit a work request just for card key access. All other requests should use the South Hall work request form.

There is blue tape on my door, I'm just going to throw that away…Hold on! That blue tape is an indication to the contractors that there is something that needs to be fixed. Please leave those up so that we can be sure all the items on our "punch list" are fixed.

My desk is too low and I need my keyboard tray.Keyboard trays are one way to make sure you are properly ergonomically set up, but we went one step better. All the desks in staff areas are height adjustable so that your entire worksurface can be at the proper level. There is a crank handle under the edge of your desk (usually on the left side). Slide the crank handle out and turn it clockwise until your desk gets to a height that feels comfortable. Be sure to slide the crank back in or your knees, elbows, ribcage, might suffer the consequences!

We will be offering ergonomic assessments in the coming months to help you get fully and properly situated in your new workspace.

I tried to get into one of the classrooms, but the doors are locked. How do I get access?Your Mcard functions like the keys you had at Hutchins Hall and Legal Research. If you were able to get into classrooms with your metal key before, you will be able to get into them now with your card key. You can also get up to the 4th floor during off-hours using your card in the elevator or in the stairwell.

The drawer on my mobile ped is sticking and I'm having trouble getting it open.We want to be sure to collect all information about things that are not functioning properly. Fill out a "South Hall" work request so that we can gather all the information and we'll be able to get the right contractor here to fix the problems all at once. If you are in the market for more furniture, less furniture, moving furniture, etc., we're going to hold off on those requests until we have a chance to see how we all settle into the space. Who knows, you just might find you like having that extra chair!

Oh, and the tack boards…Really, not modern art—those bubbles aren't supposed to be there. We know most of them need to be fixed and that is a BIG punch list item. The manufacturer is coming up with a plan and we'll keep you posted on when those will be removed, replaced, fixed.